Meta, fact checking and social media

 Meta have announced that they are ceasing fact checking on social media posts.

People have predictably reacted by announcing that the sky is falling, but I don't think it is.

Moderation, in whatever form, reflects the cultural biases of those doing the moderating (try posting a picture of an Egon Schiele nude and see how long the post stays up if you have any doubts).

However, we need to think about the fact that with the exception of TikTok, all the major social media platforms, other than those in the Chinese and Russian walled gardens are owned by large American corporations, whose owners, for one reason or another seem to have an increasingly uncritical view of the incoming US administration.

Personally, I've always been of the view their company, their service, their rules, and if you don't like it, you leave - which is in part why I left social media eighteen months ago.

When I left, I did wonder if I was cutting off my nose to spite my face, but in fact I found I didn't really miss it, and with one exception not having a facebook, instagram or X account didn't really lock me out of anything

However, I do recognise that for some people social media and the contacts it  provides are highly valuable emotionally. I remember how isolated I felt as an angsty lefty teenager with an interest in science fiction, and can readily imagine that I would have found something like facebook highly valuable.

Which is why we need to move on from a simplistic anti social media position to one where we discuss the ownership and the role social media has in our society, and what the alternatives are ...